Fe-MIL-101 exhibits selective cytotoxicity and inhibition of angiogenesis in ovarian cancer cells via downregulation of MMP

Though metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have inspired potential applications in biomedicine, cytotoxicity studies of MOFs have been relatively rare. Here we demonstrate for the first time that an easily available MOF, Fe-MIL-101, possesses intrinsic activity against human SKOV3 ovarian cancer cells and suppress the proliferation of SKOV3 cells (IC(50) = 23.6 μg mL(−1)) and normal mouse embryonic fibroblasts (BABL-3T3, IC(50) = 78.3 μg mL(−1)) cells. It was more effective against SKOV3 cells than typical anticancer drugs such as artesunate (ART, IC(50) = 96.9 μg mL(−1)) and oxaliplatin (OXA, IC(50) = 64.4 μg mL(−1)), but had less effect on normal BABL-3T3 cells compared with ART (IC(50) = 36.6 μg mL(−1)) and OXA (IC(50) = 13.8 μg mL(−1)). Fe-MIL-101 induced apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) via G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential in HUVECs and induced apoptosis. Furthermore, Fe-MIL-101 exhibited stronger antiangiogenic effects in HUVEC cells than antiangiogenic inhibitor (SU5416) via downregulation the expression of MMP-2/9. Our results reveal a new role of Fe-MIL-101 as a novel, non-toxic anti-angiogenic agent that restricted ovarian tumour growth. These findings could open a new avenue of using MOFs as potential therapeutics in angiogenesis-dependent diseases, including ovarian cancer.